Conventional chocolate products cannot be stored or transported at temperatures of about 30° C. or higher without becoming soft and sticky. Many different attempts have been made to increase the heat stability of chocolate, such as the use of high-melting oils and fats or the use of substances which improve the integrity of the chocolate structure at higher temperatures.
Promising suggestions have been made with regard to the incorporation of water to improve heat stability. Regular chocolate contains about 1 percent water. The incorporation of additional water increases the heat stability of chocolate; there generally is, however, a delay, often on the order of several weeks, before the heat resistance is developed. Until such heat resistance is developed, it is necessary that the chocolate is maintained at temperatures below 30° C.; thus, storage and/or shipping under temperature controlled conditions until the desired heat stability is obtained is normally required.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,560 describes a heat-resistant chocolate prepared by adding moisture to chocolate by the addition of a stable water-in-oil emulsion (e.g., a reverse micelle emulsion) to tempered chocolate. Upon aging and stabilization, it is reported that cocoa butter crystallizes and thermal robustness develops. The heat resistance or thermal robustness (neither term is apparently defined) is reported to develop “after about 24 hours” or “after aging about 1 to 2 days in ambient conditions.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,760 describes a heat-resistant chocolate and a process for making same, wherein the chocolate consists essentially of a mixture of a water-in-oil emulsion and a chocolate base material, wherein the mixture contains an emulsifying agent and wherein a water-soluble material selected from saccharides and sugar alcohols is dissolved in the aqueous phase of the water-in-oil emulsion prior to mixing it with the chocolate base material. The increase in heat resistance (i.e., defined as shape retention at above 40° C. such that it is not “sticky to the direct touch”) is reported to depend on time and is achieved by storing the products for about 20 days.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,376 describes a similar process, wherein the water-in-oil emulsion is a microemulsion wherein water is present in the form of droplets having a size of 10 to 1000 Å.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,540 describes another similar process comprising the preparation of a water-in-oil emulsion and the addition of a molten chocolate composition to the emulsion, and mixing the added molten chocolate composition and the emulsion so that destruction of the emulsion is substantially avoided and so that during the adding and mixing, the molten chocolate composition is added and the added molten chocolate composition and emulsion are mixed to obtain a chocolate mass product which comprises a fatty phase and contains water in the form of droplets distributed in the fatty phase and which contains the water in an amount of from 1 to 40 percent.
As noted, although these processes lead to an increase in the heat stability of the obtained chocolate products, this property unfortunately is not obtained immediately after shaping. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a process which allows the manufacture of chocolate or chocolate-like confectionery products with increased heat resistance which manifests itself essentially immediately (i.e., generally within about 60 minutes, more preferably within about 15 minutes of the microwave treatment, and even more preferably before the completion of the manufacturing process). The present invention provides such a process.